Retail regular gasoline prices rose by 2c in the last four weeks to $3.422/Gal. About 53% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
Scroll down for a chart of the RBOB-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
Total motor gasoline inventories fell by 2.1 MMBbl/d for the week ending March 10 and are about 3% below the five-year average for this time of year
France’s two biggest oil refineries halt operations as strikes escalate (BBG, SPGlobal)
Total's 0.25 MMBbl/d Normandy refinery and Exxon's 0.24 MMBbl/d Gravenchon plant are halting operations as protests over the government's pension reform plans escalate
Together the two refineries account for 42% of France's total 1.164 MMBbl/d refining capacity
"High gasoline and diesel stocks in ARA have helped cushion the impact, reducing the likelihood of large price spikes seen in October during a period of strikes in France," said S&P Global in a note on March 16
So far in March, France has released roughly 1.25 MMBbl of petroleum products to prevent shortages of gasoline and diesel
Also, France asked that some airlines preserve their jet fuel reserves, which can be done by refueling planes outside of France
Retail diesel prices fell by 29.5c in the last four weeks to $4.185/Gal. About 41% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
Scroll down for a chart of the NY Harbor ULSD-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
Distillate fuel inventories fell by 2.5 MMBbl/d for the week ending March 10 and are about 8% below the five-year average for this time of year
US Retail diesel prices post a seventh-consecutive weekly loss
The national average diesel price fell 6.2c/Gal from a week ago to $4.185
According to EIA data, prices haven't been this low since February 28, 2022, when the national average was $4.104
A relatively warm U.S. winter, along with declining prices, helped push the U.S. distillate inventories to 119.7 MMBbl
However, any pickup in economic activity or an uptick in demand could deepen the imbalance between supply and demand
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